A public house—or pub—is a centuries-old type of drinking establishment, so named because early English common law declared inns and taverns to be public houses obligated to receive travelers willing to pay for food, drink, …

The fabled Necklace of Harmonia is a cursed object of Greek myth. It was made as a means of revenge by Hephaestus, god of fire and metalwork, after he discovered that his wife, Aphrodite, was …

A traditional Chinese delicacy, the so-called thousand-year-old egg may look and smell ancient but nowadays is actually ready to eat after just a few months. Preparing the dish involves coating a clean egg in an …

Shortly after conjoined twins Abigail and Brittany Hensel were born in 1990, doctors determined that there was little chance both girls would survive separation, so their parents elected not to attempt it. Now in their …

Curzon (1859-1925) was a British statesman and champion of the colonial ideal. A member of the minor aristocracy, he was known for his intelligence as well as his ego. Viceroy of India when the Indian …

For millennia, artworks have been looted during times of war. By the time Alexander the Great invaded Egypt in 332 BCE, the tombs of almost all the Pharaohs had already been looted, and as recently …

In a steam engine, hot steam expands under pressure, and part of the heat energy is converted into work. The idea to harness steam’s power and convert it to mechanical energy dates back 2,000 years …

The lion dance is a form of traditional Chinese dance in which performers mimic a lion’s movements in an elaborately decorated lion costume. Originally performed as entertainment or as part of a ceremony to disperse …

The Missorium of Theodosius I is a silver ceremonial dish that is 29 in (79 cm) across and weighs about 34 lb (15 kg). It was probably made in Constantinople in 388 CE to commemorate …

Also called a syrinx or panpipes, the sheng is a primitive wind instrument consisting of a series of short hollow reeds or pipes graduated in length by the musical scale and fastened side by side. …

A herding dog is a type of pastoral dog that has been selectively bred for the purpose of directing and controlling the movement of livestock. Renowned for their intelligence and responsiveness to commands, these dogs …

A maser is a device that produces an intense and highly focused beam of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range of the spectrum. Its name is an acronym for “microwave amplification by stimulated emission of …

Brown was an English landscape gardener known for designing gardens that broke with the French formal tradition. Brown instead favored a distinctively English style of grandly picturesque, natural-looking, and asymmetrically structured landscapes replete with groves …

The printing press is widely regarded as one of the most important inventions of the second millennium, one that revolutionized people’s access to information and ushered in the modern age. Johannes Gutenberg, the first European …

Tonsure is the practice in some Christian churches and other religious orders of cutting some of the hair from the scalps of clerics. In the West, the tonsure consisted of a circular patch on the …

The Russkaya Pravda was the legal code that grew out of common law and the feudal regulations of the medieval state known as Kievean Rus, the earliest predecessor of modern Ukraine and Russia. Codified by …

The Russkaya Pravda was the legal code that grew out of common law and the feudal regulations of the medieval state known as Kievean Rus, the earliest predecessor of modern Ukraine and Russia. Codified by …

Among the earliest pigments used by mankind, ocher has a yellow-orange to orange color and is made of varying proportions of iron oxide and clay. The world’s first known works of art, found in South …

Written in about 1180 by an Augustinian canon of Lincolnshire named Ormin, the Ormulum is a collection of homilies on the Gospels consisting of almost 19,000 lines of Middle English verse. Because Ormin uses his …

Between 1611 and 1718, the Kingdom of Sweden was one of the great powers of Europe. Sweden first became powerful during the reign of King Gustavus II. Through a war with Russia, he acquired Ingermanland …